The caress of his eye
by RandomDarkness
Summary: My take on ithat/i scene from 3x04. Cesare couldn't afford to indulge his own indignant rage... as in all their trials, he still finds a way to fight her battles with her.
1. Chapter 1

She felt nothing. Poor Alfosno, he was trying so hard, and yet she felt nothing. Somewhere in the dark corner of this room, her husband's uncle watched and she had to squash down the urge to cry. Her eyes searched the other corner... and found him there.

He looked stony, frozen, and stricken. She stared at his furrowed brow, he looked like that sometimes when he was concentrating. In a flash so visceral it made her gasp she saw his face the night he'd touched her... his brow had furrowed then too. He'd touched her with reverence and longing, yet kept his own desire firmly in check. The memory made her breath quicken and she met his eyes.

As always, when she stared into his eyes, she felt as though more passed between them than would be possible with words. She was struggling, she felt suffocated and used... He leaned forward in his chair, his hands clenched tightly on his knees. He schooled his face to calm, even though there were tears in his eyes, then slowly and deliberately he bit his bottom lip.

She moaned louder. There was no one else there, she may as well have been alone, or perhaps touching herself to the memory of his face. Clouded by thin fabric and darkness, he let his mouth fall open and gazed adoringly at her... she whimpered. If only he could touch her now, his face alone was almost enough, just a single touch... but he couldn't reach out to her, not with his hands. Instead, she held his eyes, there was nothing else, and he allowed his vision to blur, his jaw to clench, as though it were he she was giving her body to. With a rush of surprise she groaned and felt pleasure rush through her, independent completely from the poor stuttering thrusts of her husband above her.

Cesare let out a slow breath and gave her the tiniest hint of a smile.

She'd been so angry with him. How could he allow this to happen? Allow father to barter her body's modesty for an alliance... but he was suffering too, she could see, and as always she was helpless in the face of his adoring eyes. For the good of the family... when father said it, what she heard was 'for the good of me', but not Cesare. When he said it she believed him, saw what it cost him... She could never stay angry, not with her love.


	2. Chapter 2

Cesare could see she was struggling. The King of Naples sat beside him and there was nothing he could do. The lecher coughed, and made suggestive noises, he wouldn't let her forget he was there, and the ineffectual efforts of his nephew were no where near enough to distract her.

_Look at me_ he thought hard, leaning forward as though he could reach out to her with his mind. _I'm here, my love. I'm here..._

Her eyes popped open so suddenly he though for sure she could hear him. _It's me, _his eyes tried to tell her, _the hands and body are mine. Stay with me..._ when her breath quickened, he was confident she understood him. Perhaps she really could read his mind.

He sucked his bottom lip between his teeth and held her eyes. She seemed to resettle herself, blowing air between her pursed lips and sucking it back in. When they'd been together it hadn't been like this, this graceless thrusting without affection or communication. Their love-making was a conversation, a song sung between them...

_I'm with you... remember what it felt like. It is my weight you feel, my heart beating against yours, it is my back you cling to. I can feel you still..._ He allowed his mouth to fall open, his breath smooth and slow. He could afford to make no sound, draw no attention to himself, but he could speak to her with his face and with his eyes.

_You are the light of my life, and I love you my dearest, more than Rome, more than family, more even than God. _He felt perverse and dirty, but also elated and gratified as her moans grew louder, her eyes stayed locked with his. He was doing this, not the pathetic child from Naples. He was reaching out with nothing but his eyes and the power of his devotion and when she shuddered and gasped he knew it was he who'd done it without ever touching her.

_Thank you... _He no more needed to hear her voice than she had his. He read it in her eyes... Unlike him, however, there seemed to be no fear in her at all, not of what they had done right under her husbands nose, nor the passion of this impossible connection they shared.

"Your sister is lucky indeed, to have a husband who can give her pleasure his first time, yes?" The King of Naples said with a grin.

Cesare had to squash the urge to grip the smug bastards throat in his fist and crush it.


End file.
